AndyC Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Hi all Late start with this one (Build #1) and its going to be a challenge, I think. Short run kit with resin and vac canopies but a great subject... a turbo-prop and jet fighter Box shot... Sprues and resin etc... Instructions... Hopefully with a B/H weekend coming up I can get a good run at it. See you later! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Yep, and another Good one. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 I must admit I am quite a fan of the Czech Models kits. I build the XP-77, BV 40 and Me-309 and they all went together pretty well for a short run. I have several other still in boxes - always bought them when Squadron reduced the prices drastically. Should have bought more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted August 22, 2013 Author Share Posted August 22, 2013 Agreed! I want more and am always on the look-out at shows - I really want the F3D and missed a few of these over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 I mised the F3D too - but was lucky at e-bay. One of the few times when all but me forgot to bid... But it is really difficult to get hold on one. I like to do a China Lake version but I did not start because I read that some had the interiour green cockpits redone in grey at some time. Thanks to this bit of info I do not dare to start because I have a 100% chance of chooseing the wrong clour out of the two options, which will be difficult to correct once the cockpit is closed. I had this experience with my Monogram Bell X-1 (Monogram said the cockpit colour is grey - arggghhhh! - was before the internet existed) and it still bothers me so much that I will build a new one in the comming 245 years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted August 22, 2013 Author Share Posted August 22, 2013 If I just bit the bullet and paid a minimum £40, I could have one probably when they come up on eBay - it just seems a lot for a kit...I find the late '40's/early '50's the most difficult to research for some reason and also mostly poorly served in 1/48 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Agree. I got mine for under 40 GBP inc. shipping. As said I was really lucky. And the Aeromaster sheet for a Euro :-) It is sometimes a bit crazy - sometimes I am too close to spend this or that amount on a kit I really like to have and the next moment I grab several bargains for the same amount My stash would me much smaller, if I did it the other way round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Welcome to the build I willlook forward to this one nice choce Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 ha ha, I was thinking about that one early on as well! I have the same one in my stash, bought it in Singapore for next to nothing, about $25 USD! Will have to follow this with extra interest, looks a nice build! :popcorn: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolja Posted August 24, 2013 Share Posted August 24, 2013 I've got a Czech Model Skyknight in the stash and was wondering how it was. Based on everyone's comments I'll have to move it up the queue a bit! As for this build, can't wait to see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 25, 2013 Share Posted August 25, 2013 This might interest you guys. There is a sale on on this site. http://www.aviationmegastore.com/search/LM5027d23de63be64c0a9168307b/_/p1/c/s/f1400 Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 25, 2013 Share Posted August 25, 2013 This might interest you guys. There is a sale on on this site. http://www.aviationmegastore.com/search/LM5027d23de63be64c0a9168307b/_/p1/c/s/f1400 Cheers, This is a great site for hard to get stuff and their prices arn't too bad either. Got the decals for the Scooter there. Will copy all your tricks for this build....and miss you mistakes!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted August 25, 2013 Author Share Posted August 25, 2013 Thanks Les, Kolja, Rich and Arnold! I decided that rather than doing this and the FR-1 in parallel, I would do them consecutively, to save confusion and resin dust! I bathed the resin in soapy water and it air-dry and then primed it with Halfords primer Moving into the den, I taped a sheet of 800 grade wet and dry and started cutting off plastic. The fuselages were done first - they were treated a little like a vac kit - there are no locating lugs, so they were gently dry sanded and then progressed to wet sanding. The surface detail is quite good and importantly there is no problem with the panel lines not matching up. The wings will need a lot of work as the casting is quite rough and flash is present all over the edges and the joins at the fuselage. Then it was out with the razor saw(s), mask and water and I started removing pour stubs from the seat and cockpit side walls. It's medium-soft resin but needs sawing and won't cut too easily with a knife. The relevant edges were wet sanded. The bits were then sprayed with Lifecolor Interior Green. I am going to assume that the floor, seat and everything up to top of side panels is green and the rest is black which was likely USN policy late war. You can see I have separated the turbo-prop spinner and taped the fuselage for a trial. The fit of the spinner is not clear as it notches into the underside of the nose and there is no location lugs at all in the nose so a lot of trial fitting will have to take place. The notch in the underside of the nose will need to be widened too. I have test-fitted the turbo exhausts and they will fit OK but with a small gap. I am going to sand the fuselage a little more as the fin and fillet area are a little thick and will have to look at some photos of the relationship of the spinner to the nose. I will carry out the detail painting of the rest of the cockpit and the IP. Thanks for looking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 This might interest you guys. There is a sale on on this site. http://www.aviationmegastore.com/search/LM5027d23de63be64c0a9168307b/_/p1/c/s/f1400 Cheers, This shop is excellent - it is not the cheapest but they have an impressive range and I had the pleasure to visit them once. Boy this is an impressive shop. It is huge. They do not only have plastic models and truckloads of books but also fight simulator stuff (not just a Thrustmaster joystic but a full airliner cockpit), finished models and almost everything connected with airplanes... including... airplanes. Really: Inside (!) the shop. And this build here looks pretty nice too Andy :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Nice start Andy looking forward to this one Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 Well, I never heard of this aircraft, so I hit Google. Interesting concept and did what it was meant to do, just not "fashionable" enough to make the cut at the dawn of the jet age. Thank you, I learned something today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 When I can dig myself out of the mountain of resin dust John, I will furnish some pictures - my advice is do NOT build this unless you own a Dremel! It's a nice kit - just a lot of preparation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 Hi all As alluded to earlier this is a short-run kit, so some modelling experience is necessary! A quick shot of the cockpit parts to start - the black has been dry-brushed with Neutral Grey and some switches have been picked out. The IP has since had some Aeroscale decals applied as can be seen in the second pic.... All well and good...except...the cockpit floor fouls the nosewheel well because that sliver of resin on the underside forming a 'box', which I took to be a key for the tab in the fuselage is not that at all and will need to be removed! So I removed the armoured backrest ready for some sanding Next onto the wheel wells for the main u/c. These have huge pour stubs which were removed by razor saw which left a large pile of resin dust (I was wearing a mask with a vent fan behind me) The next step was to attack them both with a Dremel burr to thin the outer surfaces as these have to be trapped between the wings. This entailed a lot of Dremel action and then dry fitting - another load of resin dust!. The wing locations need scraping with a scalpel as do the openings themselves which have some flash. Here they are in a dry-fitted state. They will be glued tomorrow after a final sanding and they are a reasonable fit now I made a start with the Dremel on the underside of the cockpit floor. I have made some progress on this although it is quite fiddly with not much to hold on to. The top of the nosewheel well has been Dremelled to paper-thin too The turbine exhausts were removed from their pour stubs and some eperimental dry fit has been carried out - I amtrying to find out if they were fitted straight or at a slight outward angle as the instructions don't make it clear. The fit is OK but will need some filler and they are (to my eye) a little shallow. Thanks for looking - I'm well prepared for the same on the FR-1 when I get round to that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Nice build like the look of this one , could be looking for one at the show`s Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 5, 2013 Author Share Posted September 5, 2013 Thanks Les - it's a great kit and a great subject. Not without a little work though. I CA'd the wheel wells to the lower wings after ensuring they were a good fit with some localised sanding and drilled out for the pylons. After a dry fit to ensure the wings fits I glued the wings halves together using normal poly glue and clamped and left overnight. The fit is quite good (no problems in that the wing tops and bottoms match pretty well). The wing-root intakes are resin pieces and these were separated from their casting plugs and cleaned up prior to being CA'd to the wing roots. The fit is OK but they are easily sanded. There are some problems coming up though (see below). After trawling t'interweb I found some plans from a US magazine dated 1949 which showed some sections of the XF2R and gave me a bit of a clue as to how much of the exhaust sticks out. The inside of the fuselage has a small chamfer which indicates that they splay out a little but not much. They were fixed in place using CA. I started to test fit the wings to the fuselage halves and found there is a problem. The lest two (not very good) photos show what the problem is. The wing root interferes with the innermost part of the resin intake which stops the wing bedding into the fuselage fillet It means I will have to get the files and the scalpel out and carve away either part of the intake or part of the forward fuselage wing root. I need to have a think about this over the weekend as I am away. A trial dry fit of the fuselage/wing with the cockpit and nose well taped in place shows that these are still fouling each other so the Dremel will have to come out again. There is not much to take off but both are finely sanded. I am leaning toward doing the more colourful VF-41(?) machine although this will mean it will become a F2R (which it never did) and will have the tail hook fitted. Until next week! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Nice progress Andy. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Gosh it's looking nice Andy!!! I'm half tempted to get mine out if I had the time!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 7, 2013 Author Share Posted September 7, 2013 Nice progress Andy. Cheers, Thanks Arnold - it's a bit more work than a Tamiya kit! Gosh it's looking nice Andy!!! I'm half tempted to get mine out if I had the time!!! Thanks Rich - it's worth it - just a lot of prep and dry fitting needed, which takes time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 Hi all After the last instalment, I pondered how to 'fix' the step in the wing root and started carving the resin radiator intakes and sanding the leading edges to try and fettle a better fit and after lots of the former and also a load of dry fitting, I managed to get a reasonable join. There will be some filler needed at the front to tidy it up but that's not a problem Next up was to remover the pour stub from the tailpipe and fit that. Predictably it needed a little application of the Dremel but it is nice and snug now A dry layout of the nose weights...I didn't want them fouling the spinner/nose wheel well/cockpit and I also have no idea if this is enough! I finally CA's them in place. The tailplanes were cut off the sprues, glued and sanded ready for attachment after the fuselage has been glued. Not much tidying here - they are a good fit after a quick flat sanding After a heck of a lot of dry fitting/checking I felt confident enough to CA the cockpit parts in place. The side walls have been fixed... After the seat has been separated from its pour stub, when I dry fitted it the pilot could not see out of the windscreen as it's too low! The top of the seat should be at the same level as the cockpit sides from the few photos I have seen, so I cut a piece of micro-strip and CA'd in place That's better! I'm still puzzling over the nose well and the spinner. The nose well will be better fitted to the wing structure and I have dry fitted and measured off how far it needs to project forward so that I can get the right nose wheel angle. I'll have another couple of checks before committing to the CA. The spinner likewise - and that will be done once I am totally happy. The location for the spinner and backing plate is a bit 'approximate' at best, so I may beef up the join somehow. Thanks for looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 21, 2013 Author Share Posted September 21, 2013 After a LOT of swearing - I've got the 'pit in and the fuselage is glued together! I'll get the wings and tailplanes on next and then will be making a start on the Fireball. At least I know some of the pitfalls now having done this one! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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